X204 Project

Personal branding is the practice of marketing people and their careers as brands. It is an ongoing process of developing and maintaining a reputation and impression of yourself. Your personal brand is never “finished.” Your life will always change, and you continue to better yourself. A good way to discover your personal brand is to ask an honest friend to describe you using three words. Most people aim to have a positive personal brand, especially celebrities. Ellen DeGeneres is a celebrity that most people are familiar with. She is a comedian, television host, actress, writer, and producer. But these titles are not her personal brand. This is:

In this short clip, it is easy to identify Ellen’s personal brand. Three words we could use to identify her personal brand (even though, there are more) would be humorous, genuine, and kind. Ellen closes her show each day by reminding her viewers to be kind to each other and in the YouTube clip, she elaborates to say be kind no matter what. For Ellen’s birthday, she didn’t receive a the newest and most expensive car or elaborate vacation. Instead, she received the Ellen DeGeneres Campus of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund which is also known as Ellen’s Wildlife Fund. This says a lot about who Ellen really is. Ellen often goes out of her way to display generosity to people who do good in the world. Most commonly, she has these people as guests on her show and surprises them with a large amount of money.

Personal branding is important for everyone, not just celebrities. There are so many possibilities you can reach (or fall short of) all depending on you carry yourself.

By Lauren Pauley, Business Major – IUPUC